One of the questions retirees face with drawing down their portfolios is, “Should I move everything to an annuity?” In a low-interest rate world it is obvious that answer may be no. Let’s examine the actual impact of the “rising” rate period of the last two years on annuity payments with a client who posed this question in November of 2011. Let’s use a single premium immediate annuity as an example as it’s based on sound actuarial science and have had a history of keeping the

Many variable annuity owners with Axa Equitable and Transamerica are receiving a letter they probably had to read over half a dozen times in order to believe it. The companies sent offers to policyholders to remove the guarantees (typically these are the only reasons one would buy a product with the high costs of a variable annuity), in exchange for a lump-sum added to their account values. And while that may be surprising to some, I am more surprised by the feedback I’m read

This is a series of articles I've labeled 'Variable Annuities are Retirement Snake Oil' on why today’s deferred annuities are not investments to consider for retirement. Over at least ten columns I’ll cover why you should avoid these ‘investment’ pitches and the people that want to put your retirement savings into them like the plague. Reason #1. The cash flow stream for spouses makes little sense. You and your spouse are 60 years old and have entered retirement. What is it y

One of the products that has been stung in the retirement product race are variable annuities with benefits for retirement income. Here are reasons why you don’t need an annuity, and some ideas to create a safer portfolio. As baby boomers are beginning to look for investment ideas to replace income in retirement, Wall Street has come up with ‘must have’ products over the last several years to meet their desires. One of the more interesting pitches belongs to the income benefi